1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of mounting auxiliary mounting means for electrical plug-in connections.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many electrical plug-in connections are known in practice. A special field are the electrical plug-in connections which are of a multi-contact configuration. Such multi-contact plug-in connections comprise plugs and sockets or strips in standard or special configurations which inter alia are also placed onto mounting surfaces and subsequently or simultaneously secured thereat, for example, by soldering, adhesives, snap connections etc. The mounting surfaces in this context may be base plates for very complex electrotechnical installations, but, for example, can also be printed circuit boards for computers, on which the plugs, sockets or strips of the plug-in connections are arranged.
These mounting surfaces have a common problem in that the arrangement of components is very tight. The situation is especially problematic when the placement of components on such a printed circuit board is carried out by a manipulator (for example, a robot).
The multi-contact plugs and sockets have a common feature:
In most plug contact components there is hardly any material surrounding the plug contacts in the partial area of the housing surface penetrated by the plug contact openings. When it is now desired to mount such a multi-contact plug-in connection by means of a manipulator on a mounting surface and when only the aforementioned partial area with the plug-contact openings can be used as a holding surface for the manipulator, a suction hand of the manipulator, for example, has not enough surface area in order to hold the multi-contact plug, socket or strip because the surface of the housing penetrated by the plug contact openings does not provide a sufficient, secure hold for a suction device.
For this reason, a holding unit, that can be additionally connected to the plug, socket or strip housing and has a holding surface by which a gripping device, especially a suction manipulator hand, can hold the multi-contact plug or socket, is employed in practice.
A disadvantage of this mounting method is that this additional holding unit is provided as a separate component. This requires additional costs for the manufacture as well as assembly.
This holding unit must be removed again before mounting of a further component. It is very disadvantageous that the mounting cycle time is prolonged by the additional mounting step, i.e., the removal of the holding unit from the component, and that, finally, this removed holding unit moreover must be added as disposable material to the production waste.
It is therefore a primary object of the invention to provide a new method and/or holding unit for the machine-operated placement of components of plug-in connections which, on the one hand, allows a tight placement of such components adjacent to one another and with which, on the other hand, the cycle time for mounting the components in the form of plug-in connections can be reduced while at the same time the use of auxiliary production material is lowered.
An auxiliary mounting means for an electrical plug-in connection according to the invention includes a pair of plug-in connection components, wherein at least one of the components has a holding unit with a substantially planar holding surface. The holding unit or the holding surface projects with a partial projecting area thereof at least past an outer lateral surface of the at least one component, wherein the projecting area projects into a plug-in area of the second component and wherein the projecting area is plastically deformable.
The advantages of the invention reside especially in that a holding unit, preferably a holding surface, required for mounting and additionally engaging the housing of the components of the plug-in connection, must no longer be necessarily physically removed from each component of the plug-in connection after mounting in order to achieve shorter mounting cycle times and/or a tight or even tighter placement of the components and/or, additionally, a lower consumption of auxiliary production material.
The aforementioned problem, which arises in context with the solutions according to the prior art, is solved especially in that another further component to be placed, in many cases the counterpart of the plug-in connection, in particular its movement during mounting, can be used in order to change the arrangement of or deform in a space-saving manner or, if necessary, to remove the holding unit, or partial areas thereof, for example, a holding surface still present on the neighboring component and projecting past the bodily dimensions of the housing, wherein preferably the partial areas or surfaces of the holding unit, which constitute a disturbance for the placement of the further component, are bent or buckled and these bent or buckled partial pieces then rest in particular against the outer surface of the housing of the plug-in connection part. In addition, the buckled partial pieces, according to a further embodiment of the invention, can be used as spacers or a guide surfaces for placing this further component or can be used as a locking member.
Even for printed circuit boards with, for example, relatively large placement spacing between two adjacent components, the holding unit must not be removed after mounting of the respective component because, in accordance with the invention, the aforementioned bending or buckling can be realized later by means of the oppositely positioned, neighboring plug-in connection part of the other printed circuit board when carrying out a plug-in movement that connects two printed circuit boards.